Keebles World

First off, thanks to everyone for my B-day wishes! Work made sure it was ruined, but I thank everyone anyway. Here's to hoping for a better one next year. But the subject of this post is Robin Hood, The Series . I watched this show faithfully and absolutely loved it from it's first airing. It was an amazing show, one that gave me Richard Armitage (which, in itself is an amazing gift!). But, and there is always a but, because of my impatience, I knew ahead of time what was going to happen at the end of series 2 and it completely ruined the series for me. I stopped watching it before the inevitable happened. Someone eventually told me how the complete series ended and it just strengthened my resolve that I had done the right thing to stop watching it. It was a major sore spot for me for a long time...the thought that they could do what they did to not only an amazing legend, but one of the greatest romances of all time! I never bought the series on DVD past the firs...

First up...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! Today was my big day! I never work on my Birthday, so this weekend will be when I start packing for Disney! I'm usually more organized than this and have it all done by now, but I think it's because flying takes more preparation and, since we're not flying this time, my prep brain is not working as fast. Flying is a very stressful thing for an Asper and it takes ton of mental prep and considering how work has been the past few months, I don't have the mental juju to get through a flight anyway. But alas, enough about me, on with the show...You've made it! It's weeks or even days before your trip and you think you're ready...but you'd be wrong. There are some finite details that make the OCD'er not only feel better, but make for a better, more controlled trip. I spend months loosing weight because my vacation clothes are a smaller size and I usually also spend that time on the treadmill, but I have done a cra...

Keeping in theme with my current blog series, I thought it apropos to share with you this YouTube clip. This Sunday starts the new series of Once Upon A Time, and I, for one, can not wait! It's been a very long time since an American show has gotten (and kept) my attention, but this one certainly has because Once was practically made for me - the perfect combination of romance and drama and most importantly, Disney! ABC.com has a great introduction to the first series with a few major exclusions(for those that haven't seen the first series...it's out on Blu-Ray and DVD now, go get it!). There is no mention of August/Pinocchio, Ruby/Red Riding Hood, Jefferson/The Mad Hatter, Ashley/Cinderella, asylum patient/Belle, or even the dragon/Maleficent (although Red, Belle, and Maleficent in dragon form do show up in the clip). Considering they are an integral part of the storyline, they definitely could have gotten their appropriate screen time if the narrator didn't ramb...

So you've booked your resort package...picked your hotel, ticket and dining options as well as planned your transportation, now you have to sort out a schedule. Disney is not a "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of place (not that any place is so for an OCD). Parks are open at different times on different days, there is the Extra Magic Hours to consider, if it's during a party night the Magic Kingdom closes at 7 (Mickey's Not So Scary or Mickey's Very Merry Christmas), during the Food and Wine Festival there are special events on specific days. Then there are events in the parks every day, parades, stage shows, and fireworks that happen at specific times. You need to know these things before booking your dining reservations. The window between when you have to fix your schedule and book your 180 plus 10 dining ressies is very small...the park schedule is released only days before your dining window comes up. This is why the scheduling time is the mos...

I've been saving this post until the end of the initial planning stage for one very particular reason - it encompasses all aspects of the initial planning phase, booking, dining, and transportation. I'm not a fan of staying off-site. There are way too many perks to on-site guests (which I'll get to shortly). It drives me nuts when people say they stay off-site because it's cheaper. That couldn't be further from the truth! Yes, your actual hotel stay might be cheaper, but the benefits to staying on-site save you so much money, it all works out in the wash. Most people only see the initial costs and don't factor in all the little expenses that occur once you get there, which leads me to these infamous benefits I keep mentioning. You can safely assume that ticket prices and your meals will be cheaper if you get a resort package, simply because Magic Your Way Packages and dining plans aren't available to non-resort guests (although you can book dining r...

This is gonna be the easiest part of your planning...transportation. How far away you live or how quickly you want to get there will determine your arrival method, be it planes, trains, or automobiles (yeah, I know, that joke is getting old). We usually fly, but this time we are driving. But however you get there, transportation while you're on property is easy...Disney takes care of that for you! We book airfare pretty early, just because flights to Orlando fill up fast and I want to be guaranteed a seat. I don't do well with the unknown. But, for those more adventurous people, you might get better fares by waiting (or you might end up having to drive). If you do fly, transportation from the airport comes pretty straight forward as well. You can either rent a car, use a car service, use a taxi (the most expensive option) ,or use Disney's Magical Express, a free (yes, I said free) bus service provided by Disney for resort guests only. They not only deliver you to ...

After the last post, you should have a good handle on resorts and tickets (or completely confused by my ramblings, either is a possibility). But this post deals with the subject of the Dining plan and dining reservations, the most nerve racking and exciting part of the booking process! As the same with the ticket options, there are different levels of dining plans as well, but I'm really only going to discuss two of them (for the simple reason I only have experience with these two); the quick service dining plan and the basic dining plan. I guess I should first describe the different meal levels (yes, Disney does so love their levels). Snacks, which, believe it or not, consist of a lot of choices from rice crispy treats to Disney cookies (my personal favorite, they are huge and thick and doughy in the middle-perfection!) to Mickey head ice cream treats to chips to soda to donuts to turkey legs, to fresh fruit, to well, you get the point. Then there is quick or counter servi...

Here we go with part 2 of my Disney planning series... Once you’ve got your dates in mind, the next step is to book your trip. First step is your Disney World package, then depending on where you live, you have to decide how to get there, either by planes, trains, or automobiles which will also affect how you get around not only Orlando, but also inside WDW. But one step at a time…let’s start with the WDW portion of your trip. There are several ways you can go about booking a Disney trip, either online, through the phone to Disney central reservations, or through a travel agent (although I don’t get using a travel agent…why pay extra to have someone do the same job you can do yourself with a bit of research-Disney doesn’t offer very many discounts privately that they don’t offer publically, the travel agents just know what they all are (as could you with that magical tool called research!). And what are websites like Travelocity or Expedia but online travel agents? We book direc...

Hopefully with this series I will be giving you an idea of what it's like to plan a Disney trip in the only way I know how, with gift of OCD. There are many levels of OCD, my particular brand leans very heavily on the obsessive side and not so much on the compulsive side (although I do have my moments), but needless to say, it makes for great planning! But my social issues wreak havoc and play a huge part in planning as well. But as Buck from the Country Bears says, "hey Henry, lets get on with the show"! It never ceases to amaze me how people don't do research on this particular vacation destination. You wouldn't go to Europe or even new York without planning. I've discussed in the past how huge Disney World (or WDW for short) actually is, and considering it's twice the size of Manhattan, one would think a little bit of planning would be in order. But a lot of newbies make the mistake of thinking of Disney as their local amusement park, in need of ...

Here we go with a combo post, frankly because I'm too lazy to split these up. I'm two weeks into my new job and I have yet to work less than a 12 hour day (so NOT according to plan). But boy has EVERYTHING changed! I'm even more stressed out now, but it is such a good kind of stress! I leave everyday with such a sense of accomplishment! I also haven't had a headache in two weeks (and yes, I'm sure I just jinxed myself). It hasn't been all wine and roses though. My old co-worker took on the transcription part of my job, she's doing it all by herself now. Problem with that is, when she's off, I still have to cover her. Needless to say, she was off last Thursday and Friday and it made for some incredibly hairy moments. It was even way too much for me and I snapped at people who kept bothering me (alot apparently, I heard my name and "bitch" mentioned in the same sentence quite a few times...gotta love the supersonic hearing and heighte...

It's been forever since I've done a book review, probably because it's been forever since I've actually had a chance to read a book, but I really wanted to review this one because it really left an impression on me and that is no small feat! I've read dozens of Jane Austen fan fiction-type books and absolutely love them, particularly either the modern day retellings or the ones where the modern people get transported to the Austen era (although not so much the so-called sequels...those tend to tread too much on the original novels toes). There is a TV miniseries that I absolutely love called Lost In Austen which is the story of a girl completely obsessed with Pride & Prejudice and ends up swapping places with Elizabeth Bennet (not really Amanda's choice and she tries numerous times to get back only to be thwarted by a very quickly-adapting to modern times Lizzie). Although Amanda tries not to mess the storyline up, she ends up completely altering ever...

I had a solid working day (although it was a day of reorganizing instead of actual projects) and came home totally pooped!! I still cleared a good 10 hours and I'm having a lot of trouble controlling myself from running everything. Don't even get me started on the guilt I'm feeling about all my old jobs being dumped on others - but I've really got to learn to let things go. But, oh my Donald Duck! How lovely it is to have my own quiet private office!!!

First off, thanks so much everyone for your kind words about my blogoversary! And everyone watch Kate's blogs, because her blogoversary is very soon! Well, on to the news...I am the new IT Manager of my lab! Not bad for an art major drop-out! I opened a bottle of wine to celebrate, but I didn't open a good one because the celebration is not a big one. My predecessor is gone, I've moved offices and I am settled enough to start work on Tuesday at...ugh...9 am. At least I'm not sharing an office anymore and I have complete control of my own world instead of dipping my toe in every other department. For the first time in my entire career there, I actually feel like I'm making a difference, and it's a pretty good feeling! But, and there is always a but, they put me on salary, so even though I got a little raise, I will be making a lot less money because I won't be getting the massive overtime or shift diff, and I have to go to the training course in Dece...